Blind Egyptian entrepreneur builds AI app to help users experience the world through audio

When Karen Morad, a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Cairo, went on a Kenyan safari in June 2026, she experienced something she thought was impossible: “seeing” the animals around her despite being completely blind. That moment was made possible by ScribeMe, an AI-powered app created by her older brother, Mark, also blind, which turns a phone’s camera, or Meta smart glasses, into a real-time audio narrator of the world. This story, first reported by Reuters, shows how personal struggle, self-taught coding, and assistive AI can combine to give thousands of visually impaired people a new kind of independence.From personal loss to a global accessibility toolMark Morad (also referred to as Mark Sedky in a report by Enterprise.com) began losing his vision in 2018 due to a rare, incurable optic nerve condition; by late 2021, both he and his sister Karen were completely blind. In school, Mark hit a wall: the screen readers he relied on would go silent when faced with charts, diagrams, and equations in physics and chemistry, leaving him dependent on others to interpret visual material. After reaching out to overseas developers with no response, he taught himself to code using YouTube tutorials ...